THE COST OF WAITING

WELCOME

Hello and welcome! I’m writing this on the Day of the Fire Horse.

If y’all are confused, the Fire Horse is one of the twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac cycle that marks their Lunar New Year. That means each year (and even each day) carries the energy of a specific animal and element. The Fire Horse is bold and decisive. It’s fast-moving. The Fire Horse does not sit around wondering if it should maybe leave the barn. No, ma’am. That horse takes off running without hesitation.

Why does that matter for real estate? Because it feels like the right metaphor for what I’m seeing in the market right now.

I cannot tell y’all how many buyers I’ve watched fall in love with a house, sleep on it, call their cousin, poll their group chat, wait for “a sign”… and then call me two days later when it’s gone. Or worse, when it sold for more than they would have paid. That’s why today we’re going to chat about the real cost of waiting, and why the most expensive decision your clients will ever make might be the one they didn’t.

STORYTIME WITH GLENNDA

He Who Hesitates…

I have been seeing this way too much lately. Buyers are just sitting on the sidelines, convinced that if they wait just a leetle bit longer, the perfect house at the perfect price with the perfect interest rate is going to magically appear. (Heavy sigh.) Meanwhile, sellers are holding out for the same kind of offer, with all the perfect factors in their corner. And every-damn-body is thinking that standing still isn’t the same as losing ground. Spoiler alert: it is.

Swipe Right Society

Y’all, here’s the thing about today’s buyers: they’ve become conditioned by the swipe mindset, whether it’s dating apps or streaming services. They’re converts to Amazon Prime’s Church of the Overnight Delivery. Let me ask this—if everything is available all the time, why on earth would they feel any sense of urgency about anything?

Think about it this way: when folks in my generation were kids, if we wanted to watch our favorite show, we had to plan our whole Wednesday night around it. We had to be home and ready. There was no, “Eh, I’ll catch it later.” You caught it now or it did not get caught!

But today if Bob doesn’t do it for you on Tinder, Bill will pop up tomorrow, and what if you like Bill better? You may have missed him if you didn’t wait! Buyers are treating houses the exact same way. There’s no sense of urgency. They think if 123 Banana Street isn’t perfect, they’re confident that 456 Banana Street will hit the market tomorrow.

And that mindset is costing them.

The Math Ain’t Mathing

I have a buyer who I’ve been working with for two years. Two. Years. They’re so afraid of making the wrong decision that they’ve made no decision at all, convincing themselves that’s the smart play.

Let me show y’all what “safe” looks like on paper: their budget is $500K. If they had bought two years ago, their interest rate would have been somewhere between 4.75-5%. Instead, they’ve been renting at roughly $2,000 a month. That’s $50K in rent they paid to someone else, and it’s money they’ll never see again.

Meanwhile, that $500K house has sure as heck climbed to $550K. Before we factor in any other math, that’s already an additional $50K out of pocket before they’ve signed a single sheet of paper. Now, if you add in a significantly higher interest rate, they’re looking at a six-figure consequence for a decision they thought wasn’t costing them anything.

As Tony Robbins says, “Don’t kid yourself. If you’re not improving, you’re sliding back.” While my buyers stood still, the market kept on marching forward. They have lost years of equity-building, and years of making small improvements that add big value. And guess what? Other people are now living in the houses they passed on!

Bravado Is Not a Strategy

Buyers aren't the only ones playing this game. Sellers do it too, and it's just as painful to watch. I had a seller who received an offer on Day Two. Day. Two. It was for $720,000, with $10,000 in closing costs, just slightly under his asking price. Mind you, this wasn’t a lowball. This was a real, serious offer with committed buyers. My seller said to me, “Well, Glennda, we just listed and we got this offer so fast, so surely something better is coming.” While I can give advice, I can’t make anyone take it, so he didn’t accept the offer.

Let me tell you something—that offer was in October. Five months later, he's fielding offers between $650,000 and $675,000. He won the battle of his pride and lost $45,000 to $70,000 in the process.

I've seen the same story play out on the buyer side. A couple wanted a house worse than they wanted to take their next breath. They made offer after offer, just wearing down that seller, and finally got the sellers to drop the price by $25,000. The caveat was, they attached a contingency that the seller ultimately refused to accept. By the time their condo went under contract, the home they wanted sold to a different buyer. So they won the battle but lost the war.

“Not Enough” Is Keeping You Broke

There's something deeper going on here, and I think about it a lot. We live in a you're not enough culture. You’re not pretty enough, not rich enough, not boo-ed up enough. And that bleeds straight into how people make (or don’t make) real estate decisions.

I had a buyer walk away from a $500,000 house because the closet wasn't big enough to hold everything she'd ordered from Amazon. Let me say that again. She passed on what is likely the single largest asset she will ever own because of a closet that couldn't fit her $29.99 Dokotoo sweaters. Oh, my stars, y’all… we’ve been so conditioned to look for the next best thing that we can't recognize a good thing when it's standing right in front of us with a lockbox on the door.

When Should You Wait?

Now, I always want to show all sides of the argument, so there are smart times to wait. If your marriage is shaky, don't buy a house. If you're carrying serious debt, get that handled first. If you're about to pop the question, let her be part of the decision. The only time waiting makes real sense is when a major life decision in another area has to come first. But if your life is stable and your reason for waiting is "something better might come along"? That's not strategy. Oh, no. It’s fear.

Now What?

It feels like homeownership used to be treated like a long game. The people who played it that way won. Back when we had to plan our TV watching, everything felt like more of a long-term commitment. What we’re seeing is those people who could commit are the ones who’ve been at their jobs for decades, and it’s paid off for them. I mean, the average UPS driver who stayed at their job for 25 years? They’re sitting on a paid-off beach house in the Florida panhandle right now. Yet stability isn't a bygone era, because it’s still how wealth gets built.

The market isn't waiting for the buyers to feel ready. It’s up to us to help them find that mindset, otherwise someone else is going to buy that house. Someone else is going to build that equity. Someone else is going to make the decision they’re afraid to make.

The cost of waiting is real. The only question is whether they’re willing to keep paying it.

GLENNDA BOUGHT GRANDMA’S HOUSE

I’m Floored

Quick little Grandma House update for y’all! I just went to Floor & Decor to look at LVP again. I had originally picked out a floor that would match the existing kitchen tile because I wasn’t planning to replace the kitchen floor. In my mind, that felt practical. Then I talked to my son-in-law who actually installs LVP. He said, “Glennda, why don’t you just change the kitchen floor, too? It’s not that much more, and then you can pick whatever you really want.”

Well, that stopped me in my dang tracks because he was right. I was making a design decision based on an old constraint. I realized I was trying to force the rest of the house to match something that I didn’t even love, just because it was already there. And that’s not how you create something cohesive. That’s how you end up compromising room by room.

Sometimes the smartest move isn’t sticking with the original plan. Sometimes it’s stepping back, reassessing the foundation, and giving yourself permission to do it right the first time.

More next week!

GLENNDAISM

Today’s Words of Wisdom

GLENNDA BAKER & ASSOCIATES

Better Than New!

This house at 4815 Briscoe Drive in Cumming, GA, is the kind of place that makes you question why you’d ever wait on a builder.

Set on the largest lot in the neighborhood and tucked into a quiet cul-de-sac, it already offers something the new construction can’t: space, privacy, and maturity. The landscaping is established. The upgrades are done. The money’s already been spent… and you’re not the one writing those checks.

Inside, you get hardwoods throughout, custom built-ins, designer lighting, a dramatic floor-to-ceiling tiled fireplace, and a truly finished kitchen with top-tier appliances with a walk-through butler’s pantry that you’ve got to see to believe. The twelve-foot panoramic doors open to a covered porch overlooking wooded privacy, not a construction zone. And while builders in the neighborhood are discounting base models, this home delivers completed enhancements, energy-efficient construction, and flexibility in the floorplan without the timeline delays, punch lists, or surprise costs. In a market where new construction prices are adjusting, this resale gives you the upgrades for free, the lot you can’t replicate, and the ability to move in now: no waiting, no compromise.

So, no hesitation!